Humane Society celebrates its ‘model’ achievement

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Humane Society Silicon Valley President Carol Novello, left, lifts a glass with Dr. Cristie Kamiya, center, and Dr. Kate Hurley to celebrate the Humane Society’s being named the world’s first model shelter. Kamiya, chief of shelter medicine, led the Humane Society’s initiative to meet model shelter guidelines developed by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. Hurley is one of 14 association members who wrote the guidelines.

Staff at Humane Society Silicon Valley officially celebrated Jan. 4 after being named the world’s first model shelter late last year.

The organization achieved model shelter status in October by demonstrating and documenting that it meets all 543 “must, should and ideal” guidelines developed by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians.

The association created the guidelines to protect homeless animals from suffering and disease and to ensure shelters provide what it calls the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare.

Dr. Kate Hurley, director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California-Davis, is one of 14 association members who developed the guidelines. Hurley was on hand at the celebration to award a trophy to Dr. Cristie Kamiya, chief of shelter medicine for Humane Society Silicon Valley. Kamiya led the initiative to meet the model shelter guidelines.

“We chose the five freedoms of animal welfare because there was widespread agreement that every animal deserved those five things,” Hurley said in a speech at the event, held at Humane Society Silicon Valley’s Animal Community Center in Milpitas. “Freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from fear and distress, freedom from pain injury or disease and freedom to express normal behavior. We felt like it was unarguable.”